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Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Municipal Reporter
BULAWAYO city councillors’ recent actions of bunking and walking out of key council meetings have reportedly caught the ire of residents who have threatened to approach the Government to seek urgent intervention.
MDC-Alliance councillors in Bulawayo have been engulfed in factional fights over the past months with the latest tiff caused by a recent move by one faction aligned to the mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni to endorse the only Zanu-PF councillor in the council chambers, Clr Kidwell Mujuru to be part of the business council committee.
However, this was met with opposition from the other faction previously led by expelled deputy mayor Mr Tinashe Kambarami, which argued that other councillors went against a party caucus agreement. Ironically, Mr Kambarami was elected as deputy mayor after councillors defied a party caucus agreement to endorse ward one councillor, Mlandu Ncube as deputy mayor.
Councillors also want to remove fellow party Councillor, Siboniso Khumalo who is aligned to Clr Mguni’s faction. They reportedly want to replace them with Clr Tawanda Ruzive and Clr Arnold Batirai, who are both influential members of the Kambarami faction.
Clr Mujuru is said to have made the deciding vote in the election of Clr Pilate Moyo as the chairperson of the Town Lands and Planning committee leveraging that he also be elected into the business committee.
“It’s chaos within council chambers, the Kambarami faction has vowed to boycott future council meetings until they resolve the business committee issue.
“So far they walked out of a general purposes committee meeting on 11 September and a majority of them boycotted a special council budget presentation meeting on 16 September, which was it being cancelled as councillors did not constitute a quorum.
“The confusion also saw the rescheduled budget meeting that was set for last Thursday, with councillors claiming misinformation. As it stands they have vowed to strike off the two councillors (Mujuru and Khumalo) during the next full council meeting, replacing them with their cronies,” said an impeccable council source.
It has further been revealed that the Clr Moyo was forced to apologise before the MDC-Alliance provincial leadership for siding with Clr Mujuru in the voting process.
“The main bone of contention is that to sit in the Ingwebu board one must be a member of the business committee, which involves a lot of travelling outside the country,” said the source.
Contacted for comment, Clr Mujuru said his duty was all about serving the community and as a businessperson he felt council could benefit from his vast experience in business.
“I am not into any factional fights, actually when I get into council chambers mine is just to serve my community. As a member of the business committee I honestly felt council and the community at large would benefit from my experience as a businessperson, I am just forward looking and will work hard in the committees I have been selected in,” said Clr Mujuru.
Meanwhile, the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) has written to the Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube demanding immediate action on the said councillors. The association through its co-ordinator, Mr Emmanuel Ndlovu noted that councillors who are absent from three or more consecutive council or committee meetings must be removed from office, hence demanded to know the action Mr Dube will take on the defiant councillors.
“It is the view of BPRA that it is essential for councillors to attend every meeting in their entirety so that each decision made is as representative of the will of the body as possible. We would also like to bring to your attention that we have sought to engage these committees to no avail.
“We would like to take this opportunity to remind councillors that they are representatives of the residents and owe their primary loyalty to those who voted for them.
“We request for your urgent response on the developments in council to avoid the possibility of litigation through approaching the Administrative Court or the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing for intervention to look into the affairs of the local authority in the interest of the residents,” wrote Mr Ndlovu.
He said that administratively, councillors have failed residents and ratepayers as evidenced by their personalisation politics. Contacted for comment, MDC-Alliance chief whip in the local authority, Clr Silas Chigora said the budget presentation meeting that was cancelled last Monday was mainly because the chamber secretary, Mrs Sikhangele Zhou had given councillors a few hours’ notice hence the majority failed to pitch up.
“So far there have been two scenarios I am aware of, which are the budget presentation meetings that were scheduled for last Monday and Thursday. On the Monday meeting, it is the chamber secretary that gave councillors short notice to the meeting, hence a majority of the councillors were committed elsewhere.
“With regards to the Thursday budget presentation meeting, we only heard of it from the finance and development chairperson, Clr Mlandu Ncube, he knew that all councillors were at a workshop hence I am surprised how he thought that the meeting was supposed to take place. Councillors are committed to their duties and attend all meetings they are required to attend unless there is a prior notice,” said Clr Chigora.
However, a councillor who attended the meeting said the councillors disagreed on whether to discuss Mr Kambarami’s expulsion or not.
“The issue all began with the mayor, Clr Solomon Mguni and Clr Ncube bringing the issue of the former deputy mayor up for discussion, Alderman Enrst Rafamoyo and Clr Lilian Mlilo however, countered by asking whether the town clerk had responded to the mayor’s seven-day ultimatum to allegations that were raised by Mr Kambarami when he attempted to eject him from office.
“This resulted in a war of words between the four councillors leading to Ald Rafamoyo and Clr Mlilo walking out of the meeting in protest, we wait to see what will happen during the next general purposes committee meeting because the issue might be brought up again,” said the councillor.
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